Economic policies, firms' entry and exit and economic performance: A cross country analysis

The change in the economic strategy, initiated in the mid-1980s and accelerated during the 1990s, of MENA countries aimed at putting their economies on a path of higher efficiency, and hence, fostering growth and development. The core of the new strategy was constituted around lowering trade barriers, privatizing public firms, and reforming the foreign-exchange market. Other reforms, such as the adoption of competition laws, aimed at improving the business climate were also on the agenda. In the Region, four countries have especially sustained important efforts toward the implementation of the new strategy. These are Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey. The latter has even gone further under the framework of the Customs Union agreement signed with the European Union (EU), which came into effect in 1996. The agreement embraces a number of deep integration elements such as the harmonization of Turkey's competition policy legislation to that of the EU, the adoption of the Community's commercial policy toward third countries, and the adoption of the EU Acquis regarding the standardization of industrial products. © 2010 Springer-Verlag New York.